The Pyrenees, West and East / by Charles Richard Weld.

  • Charles Richard Weld
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Pyrenees, West and East / by Charles Richard Weld. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE BLACK VIRGIN. a bonnet rouge, and then be transformed into a god- dess. The proposition met with hearty approval, was forthwith earried into eflFeet, and the Blaek Virgin was saved. And now all through the day, at early morn and late eve, gi-oups cluster round the figure. The pillar on which it stands is polished by the lips of the faith- ful, who imprint kisses on the stone, and a busy trade is caiTied on in dips and bougies — dozens of which are constantly burning in the Virgin’s Chapel. Alas, alas ! that these things should be, exclaims the Pro- testant, thinking of the second commandment; for now it really seems as if the worship of the Virgin in France and other Roman Catholic countries, with all her new-fangled properties and attributes, w^as rapidly usurping that of the living God. When you have feasted on the glories of the in- terior of the cathedral, the Suisse Avill show you a subterranean world of wonders, comprising crypts, chapels, and labjTinthine passages, or rather their entrances, for the greater portion of them have been recently closed by order of the Emperor. The principal chapel, or underground church, is hewn out of the rock, and occupies, according to tradition, the site of the Druidical Temple mentioned